California Zinfandel

We're adding our wine tasting to this blog as well.
On Saturday, Gretchen, Lori, Jim & I enjoyed 2 bottles of Zinfandel and lots of cheese, fruit, bread & crackers. Yum.
While both Zinfandels were from the Dry Creek Valley, they couldn't have been more different.

We started with 2005 Reverend Zinfandel from Roshambo. Super cute label!
Roshambo says this about the wine:
Why do we call this wine the reverend? Wait until you taste it. Just like an old fire and brimstone sermon, it starts easy and lures you in with scents of Christmas spices. And then it kicks up the volume with an explosion of juicy red and black berries, plums and chocolate. To finish you are called up to the altar to be healed by a smack to the forehead of spicy, smooth tannins. You'll be back next Sunday for some more.
We all thought it was more full bodied than what we expected of a Zin and thought the pepper was a bit overwhelming. We all agreed it would be probably be great with a big 'ol steak but didn't love it as is.

Then we had 2006 Zinfandel from Preston of Dry Creek. Preston says: Our Zinfandel is jammy and briary, with aroma sensations of brushing against wild blackberry bushes on a hot summer day. A bit of pepper, clove and cinnamon provides punctuation. Small crops and shallow hillside soils bring intensity of flavor while the warmth of our end of Dry Creek Valley ensures generous ripeness and a soft, rich finish. Petite Sirah is added to the blend to increase complexity and to emulate the field- blends of earlier times.
We found this wine to be much smoother and easier to drink. While we still tasted the pepper, it wasn't quite as strong and didn't over power the fruityness. We all loved this wine and it was gone in no time!

Sauce

Tonight Gretchen, Dawn, and I ate at Sauce in Hayes Valley (Yelp reviews). We started the meal off with some cocktails -- I forget the drinks' names, but the ladies got the same drink -- something based on a mix of iced tea and lemonaide with (I think) some vodka, while I had a lime, gin, and soda concoction. The drinks were OK but generally a bit too sweet. For the meal we ordered most of the items from their small plates menu: portabella mushroom fries, crab wontons, ham and cheese tater tots, seared tuna, steak sate, bacon-wrapped scallops, potato and bacon "nachos", and we also got the peach and cashew salad. We had a 2006 Pinot Noir from Sonoma, CA (I think -- I forget the name, glad I saved the cork, gotta find it!). Overall the food was good (I thought): we really liked the portabella fries, the tuna, and the crab wontons. The tater tots were somewhat bland. I liked the steak bites on-a-stick, but no one else did. The scallops were OK but pairing them with sauted red onions and brussels sprout leaves was unexpected and a bit off-putting. The nachos -- you just can't really go wrong with potatoes, bacon, cheese, and sour cream. The peach salad was good, but the cheese could've been stronger/sharper to offset the sweetness of the peaches, which were a bit unripe and crunchy. The wine was quite good, too. For dessert we ordered and shared their sampler platter, which at $20 was a bargain, since it was a huge platter with four of their normal desserts: cinnamon doughnuts with a bourbon-caramel dipping sauce (GREAT), "PB&J" cake (pound cake, berry compote, and peanut-butter ice cream sandwiched together -- also tasty), 4 mini-scoops of butter-pecan ice cream, and 4 fresh strawberries with whipped cream and brown sugar. Dessert was fun! The service was decent, and I think we all had a great time!